Protesters bearing Mexican flags invaded a Scottish golf course owned
by Donald Trump on Saturday as the presidential hopeful visited the
estate, which is hugely controversial locally.
Holding home-made
signs reading “Love Trumps hate” and “Stop the hating”, the protesters
rushed onto a hill overlooking the Trump International Golf Links
clubhouse in northeastern Scotland.
Trump employees ushered
journalists away as the chanting protesters appeared, waving a gay
rights rainbow flag and the red, white and green Mexican tricolours.
Neighbours
whose properties border the estate have raised the flag in a symbol of
opposition and solidarity due to Trump’s disparaging remarks about
Mexican people and promise to build a wall on Mexico’s border with the
US.
A Mexican flag waved in the breeze close by as Trump touched
down on a golf course green in a helicopter emblazoned with his name.
“I
want the American journalists in particular to see it,” said David
Milne, whose house looks down on the clubhouse and the 18th green,
speaking to AFP by phone.
He said the flag was a “little nod of solidarity to the Mexican people” and symbol of opposition to Trump.
“If he gets to be president the US will be at war in a week and bankrupt in two. The man is an idiot,” Milne added.
Trump’s
development was hugely controversial in Scotland as it was built on an
environmentally protected coastline of rolling dunes, and he stoked
anger by trying to stop a wind farm he said would spoil the resort’s
view.
Asked
about the protesters, Trump compared them to rival candidates for the
Republican nomination who he had defeated, such as Senator Ted Cruz.
“I
have one or two that are contentious and that’s fine because they lost,
it’s like some of the people I beat in the primaries,” to win the
Republican nomination for president, Trump told reporters.
Asked
if he suffered from a lack of support among European leaders, some of
whom have criticised his pledge to ban Muslims from entering the United
States, Trump was dismissive.
“I don’t care. It’s irrelevant. I’ll
tell you who has endorsed me, the people of the United States are
endorsing me, that’s what relevant to me,” Trump replied.
The
visit to the resort in the village of Balmedie, north of the oil city of
Aberdeen, came at the end of a two-day trip to Scotland, Trump’s first
international visit since he became the presumptive Republican nominee.
The
trip, which coincides with a shock vote by Britain to leave the
European Union, stands in stark contrast to the welcome President Barack
Obama received on a visit to Germany in 2008, when he was the
presumptive Democratic nominee.
At the time, Obama addressed a crowd of tens of thousands about his hopes of closer links to a unified Europe.
Trump
has criticised the continent’s leaders as “weak”, and accused them of
allowing uncontrolled immigration and failing to combat terrorism.
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